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A comparison of stress and coping strategies of beginning and experienced primary school teachers in Singapore
Author
Teh, Soo Bin
Supervisor
Tan, Esther
Abstract
With the increased stress of modern living, Singaporeans are feeling more stress. The teaching profession seemed to be particularly vulnerable to stress. This study attempted to investigate into whether teachers are stressed, what the factors that caused them stress are, what their symptoms of stress are and how they coped with stress. This study particularly focused on the comparison between beginning and experienced teachers to find out whether there was a difference in the stressors they face, what their manifestations of stress are and what type of strategies they employed to cope with stress. The findings showed that most teachers experienced stress, mainly from the job itself and the task of balancing between work and family lives. The beginning teachers experienced a comparatively higher level of stress. Other than the job itself and home/work interface, their major concerns were interpersonal relationships and career advancement. The common manifestations of stress were fatigue and anxiety. Generally, the beginning teachers showed more intense symptom manifestations. In terms of coping strategies, all teachers tended to take a positive attitude and employed problem-focused strategies like "work hard" rather than non-productive strategies like withdrawal. Nevertheless, it was shown that beginning teachers would use more of non-productive strategies compared to the experienced teachers. The implications from this study were discussed in terms of teacher retention and teacher training programmes for the future of Singapore.
Date Issued
2004
Call Number
LB2840.2 Teh
Date Submitted
2004